Listen to this story
Education stands as the grand equalizer, providing a ladder up for every individual to reach for his or her highest potential. It continues to endure as the most powerful tool for personal growth and community advancement.
We remain unwavering in our pursuit to extend our land-grant mission to every corner of our state, ensuring that each aspiring student can embark on a journey of academic and personal discovery with us.
In this issue of Our Tennessee, we’ll be sharing inspiring stories and strides we have made in prioritizing access to a UT degree for Tennesseans. At our campuses and institutes across UT, we continually look for ways to welcome more students and help them succeed. Sometimes that means we use unconventional thinking, like changing procedures to automatically guarantee top students in Tennessee a spot at UT or to help them graduate debt free through programs like UT Promise. In fact, our students consistently graduate below the national average in student debt!
Through these pages, you’ll learn how we are expanding our reach, connecting with more communities and individuals across Tennessee. We believe in the power of education to unite us, to challenge us and to lead us to a brighter future together.
We are grateful for the continued support of our alumni, friends and partners who believe in our mission. Your support fuels our efforts to create pathways to education that will transform lives for generations to come.
—Randy Boyd (Knoxville ’79)
